Investigating the Roles of Customers in Collective Actions Underpinning a Business Ecosystem
(R2024-122601)

AUTHORS

Hsin-Hui Chou, National Cheng Kung University

ABSTRACT

Business ecosystems have emerged as contemporary organizing structures emphasizing the collective actions of different stakeholders to enlarge the customer’s welfare. However, the existing literature on business ecosystems tends to look at the efforts devoted by the hub firm and numerous complementors, leaving the role of customers in the collective actions under-explored. Thus, this research investigates the following question: How can customers engage in the collective actions that sustain the development of a business ecosystem? A case study of Xbed, an Internet and unmanned accommodation platform in China, was employed to tackle the research question and generate theoretical and managerial implications.